Minestrone

Now that my husband and I live in Southern California, the weather here seldom calls for a bowl of hot, hearty soup. But in our first few love nests in Boston, soup was a regular supper on the cold (and I mean cold) winter nights.

In Boston, we’d spend many winter weekends grocery shopping for vegetables and meat, throwing it all into the CrockPot and watching movies while it simmered. However, warm weekends on the sunny Pacific coast still leave us longing for those lazy Sundays of doing nothing but drooling over the meal to come.

This minestrone has been my favorite one-pot meal and most scrumptious soup this season, and it is super simple to make. Just the ingredient list will have your mouth watering: Hearty kielbasa sausage, garlic cloves, fresh bell peppers, carrots, celery and onion, beans, plum tomatoes and dried basil and oregano. Toss in some plump pasta, serve it with a salad and grate some Parmesan cheese over your bowl, and dinner is served!

Directions:

In a large soup pot or Dutch oven, brown sausage in a small drizzle of olive oil. Remove sausage and set aside.

Add onion, bell peppers, carrots, and celery to pot, stirring to scrape up any brown bits. Sprinkle with a little salt and pepper and continue to cook over medium heat until veggies are crisp-tender, about 10-15 minutes. Add garlic to pot and cook 1 minute more. Return sausage to soup pot.

Using your hands, break up or crush the tomatoes into the soup pot. Add tomato juices and the chicken broth to the pot. Stir in beans, oregano, and basil. Cover and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Simmer about 20 minutes.

While soup is simmering, cook pasta according to package directions in a separate pot. Cook until al dente. Drain and add to soup pot. Stir to combine and add 1-2c water if necessary, or if more broth is desired.

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22 Responses to “Minestrone”

Georgia, this soup looks spectacular! I live in California as well but I still love me some soup even when the sun is shining and it’s 90 degrees. Thanks for stopping by my blog so that I could discover yours! :)

I understand the change of climates…we moved from CO to TX, and we still haven’t gotten accustomed to 70 degree days in January. But even though we don’t have the snow…we still love making soup and stews. Thank you for sharing your delightful minestrone recipe with me. I hope you are having a happy and warm Monday. It is actually quite cold day today in Austin!

There is absolutely nothing here not to love!!! We get a few chilly days in Austin, but this soup looks so good I think there is no need to wait! (We also lived in Boston many years back – yikes I remember the winters!!!)

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